1. Technical Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a method of and a device for digitally processing images in a network system including a plurality of such devices. The invention encompasses printing and scanning as embodiments for digitally processing images.
For instance, in a network system, personal workstations of users and printers and scanners are interconnected for printing digital print files that have been made in a workstation or scanning documents and transferring the digital scan data files to a workstation. Digital image reproduction apparatuses can advantageously be used as printers and scanners. Such a digital image apparatus includes a scanner unit, a print unit, a memory, and an operator control unit integrated in the apparatus, the operator control unit being provided with an input device and a display that permit a user to give operator control commands to the apparatus. Further, such a digital reproduction apparatus includes a network connection unit for coupling to a network for the purpose of communication with a digital external environment having at least a number of workstations of users, and a control unit connected to the scanner unit, printer unit, memory and network connection unit, and, via the network connection unit, to the workstations.
Digital print files include print image data describing the text to be printed and metadata specifying additional properties of the print file, such as the identity of the maker or owner of the print file and settings for finishing the prints in the print unit, for instance simplex or duplex printing, printing on coloured paper, stapling, etc.
Not every printer connected to the system may have the capabilities necessary for printing a print file in accordance with the preprogrammed settings of the print file. Also, the supply of the necessary material, such as staples or coloured paper, may be exhausted.
If a print job is sent to a printer that does not have the necessary capabilities, including sufficient supply of material, the print file may be printed in a different way, or the printer may stop and signal its incompetence by a message on the display in the operating panel. However, there may be printers in the system that would perfectly be able to print the print file according to its settings. And if the print file would be transferred to one of the latter printers, the user would still be satisfied.
A problem in that case is that it is not always easy to find out at the location of the printer (where the inability of the printer is perceived by an operator), which printers would be able to print the print file according to its settings. Primarily, this is determined by the static situation of installed capabilities of the other printers, but also the dynamic situation of supply and device status is relevant. The information as to printer capabilities of the printers, as well as their status, would be available at the operator's workstation, but then he would have to walk back to his workplace, which causes delay in processing his jobs.
In the case of scanning, the same situation arises, because a scanner may not have the capabilities to process a scan job in the way the operator wants to program it. For instance, a document to be scanned may be duplex, and the scanner only has a simplex document feeder. Or, the operator wants to scan a document with a high resolution, and the scanner does not support that resolution.
Again, one of the other scanners may be perfectly capable of processing the scan job according to the settings desired by the operator, but the problem arises as to which one of the other scanners can do the job. Finding the answer to this question is normally not possible at the location of the scanner, where that question arises.
2. Description of Related Art
U.S. Pat. No. 4,682,158 discloses a system of copiers connected to a digital network. The operating statuses of all connected copiers can be shown on a display in the operating panel of each copier. A copier x may be reserved from the operating panel of copier y, if the former is in the “stand-by” status. No information on the capabilities of the copiers is displayed.
EP-A 0 996 055 discloses a system of printers connected to a network. A “redirection” mode may be programmed for a printer, either by operating a dedicated key on the operating panel or by remote entry. In the “redirection” mode, waiting print jobs are automatically transferred to another printer when the printer on which they are waiting stops due to a print error. The particular printers to which the waiting print jobs may be transferred and the particular print errors for which the redirection is activated are programmed in advance. If the first-programmed alternative printer cannot do the job, the next one in the programmed sequence is tried. The entire redirection process is automatic, so that a user cannot interfere or choose another printer. Moreover, no information on the capabilities of the other printers is presented as a help for selection.